I ran across the Spirit Cats deck, illustrated and authored by Nicole Piar, while stumbling my way through Kickstarter campaigns, ferociously looking for inspiring decks to back. And, though the campaign was over for this deck, she was selling pre-orders on her website, at a ridiculously affordable price, for what amounts to 48 square prints of her ridiculously adorable art.

I gave up sugar ten months ago (we'll talk about that journey another time). Decks are now my sugar (but better for my soul) and this deck was like powdered sugar on sugared donuts on a sugar cake. I couldn't pass. Which makes eight (ahem) cat-themed decks in my collection now.

The deck did not arrive with a book, but was housed in a beautiful, sturdy hard cardboard box. A book would have been redundant because each card has corresponding text on the back, featuring the cat's name and its message. Featured above is Snugpuff, Stargazer and Chanti (left to right), with their own inspiring tidings to share. The card stock is matte and thick and easy to either riffle or overhand shuffle

I would love to see a version of this deck with a basic backing. Though the text can be convenient on decks that employ this approach, I personally found them unnecessary. These cats are so full and rich with personality that I was intuitively drawn to assign my own experience with each of them. Some of these experiences, while I sat with this deck, matched well with those provided by the artist, some went a little deeper than meanings and messages included and some were different entirely.

I do, however, adore the cat names: Shrine, with its "cozy home" message; Sage who sits at a threshold; Silvio Silvermaw, sharing with us the road less traveled. Each cat reaches out to you with the loving, wild and unpredictable nature of our own house cats but without a litter box to clean.

You can almost hear them purr.

And as I slowly walked through this garden of cats, introduced myself to their personalities, and was greeted warmly by each, I realized how perfectly suited this deck is to a daily draw, meditative or journaling practice. And how healing some of my interactions with these cards have been.

Did you know science has discovered the purr of a cat has tangible health benefits for their owners? This deck is like 48 cats purring at once. Imagine how good you'll feel!

And... it's cat-approved! They each picked a card and tried to carry it off to their respective perches!